The Change in Religion After the Spanish Conquest

The change in religion after the Spanish conquest was the most profound and the most lasting institutional transformation brought about by the conquest of the Inca Empire. The Spanish imposed Catholicism on the indigenous population, and the Catholic Church became the principal institutional form through which the Andean population was integrated into the colonial regime. The conversion of the indigenous population was carried out by the regular orders, especially the Dominicans, the Franciscans, and the Jesuits, in the half-century after 1533, and the extirpation of idolatries campaigns of the 1560s and 1570s attempted to suppress the indigenous religion and to replace it with Christianity. The campaigns were only partially successful, and a syncretic form of Andean Catholicism, in which the saints of the Catholic calendar were assimilated to local sacred figures, took root in the colonial period. The change in religion is the most lasting institutional change brought about by the conquest, and it remains a fundamental feature of the Andean cultural landscape.

The pre-conquest religious system

The Inca religion

The Inca religion was a complex system of beliefs and practices that had been developed over centuries of Andean civilization. The religion was polytheistic, with a supreme creator god, Viracocha, and a pantheon of lesser deities, including the sun (Inti), the moon (Mama Killa), the stars, the earth (Pachamama), and the weather. The religion also included the cult of the huacas — the local sacred sites — and the cult of the ancestors, including the mummified remains of the Sapa Inca and the Inca nobility. The Inca religion was closely tied to the Inca state, and the Sapa Inca was considered to be the son of the sun and the religious as well as the political head of the empire.

The Inca religion was supported by a complex religious infrastructure. The principal temple of the Inca was the Coricancha, the Temple of the Sun at Cusco, which was covered with sheets of beaten gold and which contained a large golden image of the sun. The Inca also maintained temples throughout the empire, including temples at Pachacamac, Vilcashuamán, and Tomebamba, and they maintained a system of religious specialists, including the villac umu — the high priest of the sun — and a large body of samp’ay huasi — the houses of the healers. The religious system was supported by the state, and the religious specialists were funded by the state through the system of land grants and labor extraction.

The cult of the ancestors

The cult of the ancestors, including the mummified remains of the Sapa Inca and the Inca nobility, was one of the most distinctive features of the Inca religion. The mummies of the dead Sapa Incas were preserved in the temples of Cusco, and they were brought out for ceremonial occasions, including the festivals of the sun and the planting and harvesting of the crops. The mummies were considered to be the continuing rulers of the Inca state, and they were given offerings of food, chicha, and coca leaves. The cult of the ancestors was an important element of the Inca state, and it served to legitimize the succession of the Sapa Incas and to maintain the continuity of the Inca order.

The cult of the ancestors was closely tied to the political system of the Inca state, and the destruction of the Inca state after the Spanish conquest had important consequences for the cult. The mummies of the Sapa Incas were taken by the Spanish and were eventually lost, and the ceremonial occasions that had been the principal contexts for the cult were suppressed. The cult of the ancestors, however, did not disappear, and a syncretic form of the cult, in which the ancestors were associated with the Catholic saints, took root in the colonial period.

The Spanish evangelization

The early missions

The Spanish evangelization of the Andes began almost immediately after the conquest of Cusco in 1533. The first Spanish missionaries, who arrived with the conquering army, were the secular clergy, including the chaplains of the Spanish army and the priests who had been assigned to the new colonial dioceses. The secular clergy were soon supplemented by the regular orders, especially the Dominicans, the Franciscans, and the Jesuits, who established missions throughout the central Andes in the decades after the conquest. The regular orders were, in many ways, more effective than the secular clergy in the evangelization of the indigenous population, and they established a network of missions, parishes, and schools that became the principal institutional form through which the Catholic Church was present in the Andes.

The Spanish missionaries learned the indigenous languages, including Quechua and Aymara, and they prepared catechisms and religious texts in the indigenous languages. The missionaries also attempted to translate the Christian message into the conceptual framework of the indigenous population, and they used the Inca religion as a starting point for the Christianization of the Andes. The most famous example of this approach is the work of the Jesuit priest José de Acosta, who wrote a natural and moral history of the Indies in which he attempted to understand the Inca religion from the inside, and who used this understanding as a basis for the Christianization of the indigenous population.

The role of the regular orders

The regular orders played a central role in the Spanish evangelization of the Andes. The Dominicans, who were the first of the regular orders to arrive in Peru, established missions in the central highlands of Peru, especially in the Mantaro valley and the basin of Cusco, and they were responsible for the conversion of a large proportion of the indigenous population. The Franciscans, who arrived shortly after the Dominicans, established missions in the northern highlands of Peru, especially in the Cajamarca region, and they were responsible for the conversion of the Chachapoya and other northern peoples. The Jesuits, who arrived in Peru in 1568, established missions in the southeastern highlands, especially in the basin of Lake Titicaca, and they were responsible for the conversion of the Aymara-speaking population of the Collao.

The regular orders were, in many ways, more effective than the secular clergy in the evangelization of the indigenous population. The regular orders were independent of the colonial state, and they were able to develop their own approach to the Christianization of the indigenous population. The regular orders were also more willing to learn the indigenous languages and to adapt the Christian message to the indigenous conceptual framework, and they were more successful in gaining the trust of the indigenous population. The regular orders, however, were also subject to the same limitations as the secular clergy, and they were unable to prevent the syncretic form of Andean Catholicism that took root in the colonial period.

The extirpation of idolatries

The campaigns of the 1560s and 1570s

The extirpation of idolatries — the campaign to suppress the indigenous religion — was a major feature of the Spanish colonial regime in the Andes. The campaigns were organized by the Spanish ecclesiastical authorities, and they involved the systematic destruction of the sacred sites of the Inca religion, the suppression of the indigenous religious specialists, and the punishment of the indigenous people who continued to practice the traditional religion. The campaigns were especially intense in the 1560s and 1570s, in the aftermath of the Neo-Inca State at Vilcabamba and the execution of Túpac Amaru I in 1572.

The extirpation campaigns were, in part, a response to the persistence of the Inca religion. The Spanish ecclesiastical authorities had hoped that the indigenous population would be converted to Christianity within a generation of the conquest, but the persistence of the traditional religion was much greater than the Spanish had anticipated. The indigenous population continued to worship the huacas — the local sacred sites — and to perform the traditional ceremonies, and the Spanish ecclesiastical authorities responded with a campaign of systematic suppression. The campaigns involved the destruction of the huacas, the punishment of the samp’ay — the indigenous healers — and the public burning of the religious objects of the Inca religion.

The limits of the campaigns

The extirpation campaigns were only partially successful. The Spanish ecclesiastical authorities were able to suppress the public practice of the Inca religion, but the private practice of the traditional religion continued throughout the colonial period. The indigenous population was forced to attend mass and to receive the sacraments, but they continued to worship the huacas in secret, and they continued to perform the traditional ceremonies in the rural areas. The Spanish ecclesiastical authorities responded with a series of inspections — the visitas — in which they attempted to detect and to punish the practitioners of the traditional religion, but the inspections were unable to suppress the religion entirely.

The extirpation campaigns were also limited by the lack of Spanish priests in the rural areas. The Spanish ecclesiastical authorities had hoped to staff every parish with a Spanish priest, but the number of Spanish priests was never sufficient, and many parishes were served by indigenous priests who had only a superficial understanding of Christianity. The indigenous priests, in turn, often blended the Christian message with the traditional religion, and they served as a channel for the transmission of the traditional religion in a Christian form.

Andean religious syncretism

The blending of indigenous and Christian elements

The most important legacy of the change in religion after the Spanish conquest is the syncretic form of Andean Catholicism that took root in the colonial period. The syncretic form of Andean Catholicism blended the Christian message with the traditional Inca religion, and it produced a religious system that was neither wholly Christian nor wholly Inca. The syncretic form of Andean Catholicism is still practiced in the Andean countries today, and it is one of the most distinctive features of the Andean cultural landscape.

The syncretic form of Andean Catholicism took many forms. The most important was the identification of the Catholic saints with the Inca deities: the Virgin Mary was identified with Pachamama, the earth mother; Saint James was identified with the Inca god of thunder; and the Christ was identified with the sun. The syncretic form of Andean Catholicism also included the continuation of the traditional ceremonies, especially the ceremonies of the agricultural cycle, in a Christian form. The most important of these ceremonies was the festival of the sun, which was transformed into the festival of Corpus Christi, and which is still celebrated in the Andean countries today.

The survival of the Inca religion

The Inca religion did not disappear after the Spanish conquest. The traditional religion continued to be practiced in the rural areas, and it was transmitted from generation to generation in the indigenous communities. The traditional religion was particularly important in the highland communities, where the Spanish presence was less intense, and it was the basis for the syncretic form of Andean Catholicism that took root in the colonial period. The traditional religion was also the basis for the indigenous resistance to the Spanish, and it was a major factor in the persistence of the indigenous identity in the colonial period.

The survival of the Inca religion is most visible in the highland communities of Peru and Bolivia, where the traditional religion is still practiced alongside Catholicism. The traditional religion is also visible in the Andean festivals, which combine Christian and indigenous elements, and in the Andean sacred sites, which are still visited by the indigenous population. The Inca heritage in the modern Andean world includes not only the surviving Inca architecture and the Quechua language, but also the syncretic form of Andean Catholicism that has been one of the most lasting legacies of the Spanish conquest.